Militants behind murder of police officer’s wife, says Bangladesh home minister

Police suspect religious extremists were behind the murder of one of their colleague’s wife, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal says.

Mahmuda Aktar, wife of Superintendent of Police Babul Aktar, was attacked and killed in Chittagong on Sunday while on her way to drop her son to school.

Babul, now posted at the police headquarters, led several raids on militant hideouts and investigated several terror-related cases as the additional deputy commissioner with the Detective Branch in Chittagong.

“Babul Aktar is an efficient officer and played a key role in apprehending militants. They killed his wife because they failed to get him,” he told the media in Chittagong after attending a passing out parade of the Border Guard Bangladesh.

It was Babul Aktar, whose investigations led to busting a hideout of banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and arrest of its military wing chief Md Javed in October last year.

The JMB leader died a day later in a grenade explosion when police made him accompany them in a raid on JMB hideout he had disclosed to them.

He has been promoted in April this year and was transferred to the headquarters in Dhaka, but his family lived in Chittagong.

Police said that Mahmuda was on her way to drop off her first-grader son to a bus stop for school, like she did every day.

Three attackers, who came on a motorcycle, ambushed Mahmuda in front of her 6-year-old son. They stabbed her before shooting in the head.

Home Minister Kamal said he thinks that the killing was aimed to send a message to police officers. “But other aspects will be also looked into.”

Replying a query, he said that they will now consider security for families of police officers.

“Militants have adopted this strategy (to take on soft targets like families of police officers) because they have been cornered,” said the minister.